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Friday, November 24, 2006

Pacific playoffs

This news overnight from the World Curling Federation, and disappointment for TCN's Kiwi spies ...

"The round-robins and necessary tiebreakers have now been completed for both the women and men at the 16th Pacific Curling Championships being played in the Dydo Arena, Tokyo, Japan.

The men required one tiebreaker game to determine the four teams that are entered into the semi-finals. Korea (4-1), Australia (4-1) and China (3-2) were directly qualified, while Japan (2-3) defeated New Zealand (2-3) in a Friday night tiebreaker by a score of 8-4 for the last semi-final place. Chinese Taipei missed future action after finishing 0-5.

The Korean men were awarded first place based on their defeat of Australia in the round-robin, and they now take on Japan in the semi-finals, while Australia plays China. These best-of-three semis are played at the same time as the women's games on Saturday, 25 November. The two winners will qualify for the Ford Men's Worlds which will be played in Edmonton, Alberta, in late March 2007.

The five women's teams completed their round-robin on Thursday night. The Draw-Shot-Challenge results had to be used to determine the rankings for Korea, China and Japan which were all tied for first place with 3-1 records. Korea claimed first place (345.40 cm), China was ranked second (377.54 cm) and Japan was third (420.42 cm). New Zealand was ranked fourth based on their 1-3 round-robin record, and Chinese Taipei was eliminated after finishing 0-4.

The women's semi-finals, which are a best-of-three series, will have Korea playing New Zealand, and China taking on Japan on Saturday, 25 November. The two winners advance to the final, which is a single game on Sunday, 26 November. The winner of that final, or second place if Japan wins, qualifies for the Women's World Curling Championship being hosted in Aomori, Japan. The Japanese are automatically qualified as this year's hosting Association of the Women's World Championship."